ARTD3472 17364:
Character Design For Animation
Syllabus
Semester Offered: Fall 2015 6pm-9:30pm room 301 Ryder
Instructor : Jason Wiser
Description of Subject:
This course explores realistic and stylized character design using both 2D and 3D media to examine issues of weight, contrast, and appeal.
Learning Objectives:
This course is designed to allow students to create a portfolio of character art in multiple styles and take their strongest designs from 2D to 3D Digital Models and Clay. Students will develop a mastery of character design through the creation of weekly exercises and two month-long projects. The course will be delivered in the form of studio projects, individual and class critiques, lectures, discussions, workshops and readings.
Course Length: 14 weeks (13 meetings and finals)
Course Hours (in class): 3 hours 35 minutes per week
Homework Hours: 10 hours minimum per week to pass.
Course Prerequisites: ARTD 4530
Topical Outline of Course Content: Creative thinking, problem solving, and research.
Teaching Methods: Studio
Student Learning Outcomes and Assessment:
· Explore a wide range of character concepting topics including human and animal anatomy, clothing, and design for meaning and appeal.
· Develop 2D Digital Painting techniques to explore silhouette, light, color, and focus.
· Practice sculpting techniques in clay and digital modeling software to explore issues of volume, proportion, and detail in 3D.
· Practice 3D surfacing techniques to prepare digital models for film and game media.
· Keep up with in-depth understanding of world standards, as demonstrated by research and screening of topic similar material.
· Learn to drive oneself above expectations, as evidenced by time management, understanding of Instructors feedback, and significant improvement in quality and quantity of art output.
Recommended Textbooks/References:
Digital Sculpting with Mudbox by Mike de la Flor and Bridgette Mongeon
Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay by Katherine Dewey
Materials and Tools Required: Drawing sketchbook and pencils, Maquette sculpting tools (see supplies list), Waccom tablet or cintiq, portable hard drive.
Programs Utilized: 2D Painting and 3D Modeling. You must either own Autodek Maya, Mudbox, and Adobe Photoshop or expect to be at school to work 3-5 days a week.
SEE COURSE WEBSITE FOR UPDATES: http://madwomb.com/tutorials/CharacterDesign_NU.html
Methods of Student Grading: Your progress will be monitored weekly in class and daily online. You will be graded upon the completion of specified weekly and monthly milestones.
Grades Are Based On:
30% Class participation and attendance.
15% Weekly Character Designs
15% 2D Digital Painting Projects
15% 3D Clay and Mudbox Sculpting Projects
15% 3D Digital Modeling Projects
10% Sketchbook
Grading System (according to University Policies, Office of the Provost, September 2002):
A 100-90, B 89-80, C 79-70, D 69-60, F <59. Incomplete grades will not be given unless there are documented medical or family reasons. Failure to complete assignments for any other reason will result in a drop in your final grade.
Attendance Policy: Each meeting of a class is considered a session. Attendance is taken at the beginning of each class session.
· Students arriving after the 1:30pm start time for any class session are considered tardy. Three tardies equals one unexcused absence.
· Students who do not return to class after break or who leave early without instructor permission may be counted absent.
· Missing a class session will result in the reduction of the final grade.
· Three unexcused absences equal failure in the course.
· An absence may be excused if there is a medical reason, family emergency or extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control. The final determination of whether an absence will be excused is left to the discretion of the student's instructor.
Academic Honesty (Plagiarism): Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses that erode the academic environment. The University condones no form of plagiarism—defined as the use of another’s words, ideas, visual or verbal material as one’s own without proper permission or citation. Students should make sure they have a clear understanding of this important issue and how it applies to both Liberal Arts and studio classes.
Students who violate the standards of academic honesty face serious disciplinary consequences, including letters documenting the incident in their permanent record, immediate course failure and/or dismissal from the University.
Deletion/Destruction of Student Work: The deletion or destruction of digital files, another student’s artwork or University property is considered a serious offense. All students must refrain from altering work that does not belong to them, regardless of the date the piece was created or location. Students who violate this policy face serious disciplinary consequences.
Disability Accommodation: Northeastern University strives to provide academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Accommodations are approved by the Disability Resource Center (20 Dodge Hall; www.drc.neu.edu). Students need to register with the DRC and bring their instructors a letter from that office stating approved accommodations. If you will be requesting accommodations in this class, please let me know as soon as possible to avoid delays.
Character Design for Animation WEEKLY BREAKDOWN
WEEK 1: Tuesday, Sept 15: Introduction to the course and projects. Character Design principles.
Character Designs #1: Heroic Figures. Digital Painting #1: Shapes and Brushes
[Sept 22: Class Postponed for Yom Kippur—Make-up Saturday Sept 26]
WEEK 2: Saturday, Sept 19 or 26: Character Designs #2: High-Contrast Monsters/Villains.
The Skeleton Exercise. Digital Painting #2: Light and Color
WEEK 3: Tuesday, Sept 29: Character Designs #3: Historical Character Twist.
Digital Painting #3: Creating Focus: Areas of Detail, Contrast, and Edge Types
WEEK 4: Tuesday, Oct 6: Character Designs #4: Animal Professionals.
Digital Painting #4: Specularity For Varied Material Surfaces.
WEEK 5: Tuesday, Oct 13: Character Designs #5: Family of Interest.
3D Character Modeling #1: Basic Bipedal Form
WEEK 6: Tuesday, Oct 20: Character Designs #6: Kids Media.
3D Character Modeling #2: Cutting Detail, clothes and hair
WEEK 7: Tuesday, Oct 27: Character Designs #7: Architecture as Character #1: Fantasy
3D Character Modeling #3: Introduction to Surfacing: unwrapping. Midterm Quiz: Halloween!
WEEK 8: Tuesday, Nov 3: Character Designs #8: Working in Other Styles #1
3D Modeling #4: Multi-material Surfacing (specular and bump), Rigging, and Skinning topics
WEEK 9: Tuesday, Nov 10: Character Designs #9: CHOICE WEEK:
Architecture as Character #2: Science Fiction OR Working in Other Styles #2
3D Modeling #5: Rigging and Skinning #2
WEEK 10: Tuesday, Nov 17: Character Designs #10: Symbiosis.
Sculpting #1: Introduction to Mudbox High Definition Modeling and Final Projects.
WEEK 11: Tuesday, Nov 24: Clay and Sculpting #2: Mudbox texturing and surfacing.
Mudbox Topics #2: building structure and creating accurate proportions from reference
[Wednesday Nov 25- Sunday Nov 29: School Closed for Thanksgiving Holiday]
WEEK 12: Tuesday, Dec 1: Sculpting #3: Mudbox exporting: Normal and Displacement Maps
Final Character Design Quiz: Vulnerability vs Power
WEEK 13: Tuesday, Dec 8: Initial Critique Of All Projects. Final Revisions due in two weeks.
FINALS WEEK 14: Tuesday, Dec 15: Final Exam day: REVISED PRESENTATIONS.
MANDATORY FINAL ALL-DEPARTMENT CRITIQUE: Friday December 18:
Final Department Critique of Revised Presentations.
Schedule subject to change. Please coordinate with instructor if absent.
Ryder hall and Room 301 will be open throughout the day and is generally where the department offers available lab hours, typically until 11pm each night, except for Fridays and Saturdays.
Character Design for Animation ASSIGNMENTS
BIG BREAKDOWN:
Weeks 1-10: Weekly Character Design topic exercises.
Weeks 1-4: Digital Painting topics
Weeks 5-7: 3D Digital Modeling and Surfacing Topics
Weeks 8-10: 3D Clay and Mudbox Sculpture topics
Weeks 11-12: Surfacing and Rigging
Weeks 13-14: Revise projects to present at final meeting, Finals week.
FINAL PROJECTS: Collection of concept paintings, 3D Maya Character and 3D Mudbox Character.
HOMEWORKS: From weeks 1-12 you will have three assignments each week: Life Drawing, Character Design, and a rendering exercise (2D Painting, 3D Sculpting, or 3d Modeling). Post your progress to your Tumblr blog multiple times a week! Week 13, Reading week, and Finals week will be time to revise all work for you final presentation.
1. WEEKLY DRAWN CHARACTER DESIGN (weeks 1-10):
Multiple drafts (at least ten) to produce a team of five related characters on a provided theme for the first twelve weeks. These will be critiqued in class for quality and improvement, but the grade will be for quantity, as these skills require exceptional amounts of drafting to achieve quality:
2. Month #1: 2D DIGITAL PAINTING:
Four weeks of painting exercises including silhouettes and color characters showing light, clear color choice, areas of focus, and varied materials.
3. Month #2: 3D DIGITAL MODELING:
Weekly real clay heads and Mudbox sketches from Maya templates.
4. Month #3: CLAY AND DIGITAL MUDBOX SCULPTING:
A full 3D character from concept work, surfaced with at least painted diffuse color and specular maps, rigged, skinned, and posed.
OTHERS:
5. DAILY-ISH PRODUCTION BLOG: Maintain a blog of your weekly progress this term, and to follow the teacher’s Course Blog. Include your concept paintings, 3D progress, and weekly sketchbook.
6. DAILY-ISH LIFE DRAWING SKETCHBOOK: Please get a sketchbook dedicated to this course. Draw 20 pages of Figures from Life in 20 days: 1 page a day, at least two figures per page (about 20 minutes/day): on the train, at home, on campus, etc. Scan and post to your Tumblr account for this class, and bring the sketchbook to class.
7. ATTEND NETWORKING EVENT: Go to at least one of these events this term and submit typed write-up: http://madwomb.com/tutorials/GamesBoston.html (Animatic Boston recommended!)
Character Design for Animation COURSE SUPPLIES / RESOURCES:
RECOMMENDED COURSE TEXTS:
Digital Sculpting with Mudbox by Mike de la Flor and Bridgette Mongeon
Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay by Katherine Dewey
NOTE: Please have at least on of these books ready for Week #2: They are not only only our sculpting text for the second month, it is our anatomy text for the first month.
Anatomy Pages in Katherine Dewey’s text:
p12: Full Body p21: Head and Face p26: Facial Angle
p47 &64: Torso Front Muscles in Detail p49 & 64: Torso Back Muscles in Detail
p71: Leg Muscles in Detail p87: Arm Muscles in Detail
TOOLS:
· WACCOM TABLET AND PEN: (bamboo is the cheapest): the first month of this course focuses on character painting, and we will continue to paint throughout the term. Waccom tablets are industry standard tools, important to learn. Our classroom has two Cintiqs (draw directly on the screen) and a few Bamboo tablets I will bring to class, but you should bring your own tablet to class each week.
· CLAY SCULPTING: Super Sculpey -- about $10/lb. Get one 1lb
· MAYA and MUDBOX CHARACTER SCULPTING: We will be using rapid-modeling and precision unwrapping techniques for this course, to be supplied by the teacher.
CHARACTER DESIGN: Articles by Aaron Diaz: (1) http://bit.ly/1FuZrRt (2) http://bit.ly/1PYxarW
FASHION: http://www.fashion.net/ A collection of fashion sites. Go every day and get inspired!
CONCEPT PAINTING TUTORIALS:
· Top Industry Primer on Digital Painting: http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm
· Essay on use of color: http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/element/color/color.htm
· Great 50: http://2darts.com/2dtuts/tutorials/50-digital-characters-painting-tutorials/
"JealousBodyguard":http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=436&catDisplay=1&roPos=1&page=1#.UND6DcXaF8E
· Collection of useful Tutorials and Lessons: http://www.artshow.com/resources/painting.html
· http://www.jayespace.com/ “J's Online Drawing Lessons”: messy but fascinating collection of tutorials on drawing, from books and other resources
· Great explanation of histograms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9J_rpQnaR0
· Good tutorials for character concepting: http://vinegaria.com/tutorials/
· Hands: http://drawasamaniac.com/2012/12/how-to-draw-hands-tutorials.html
· Painting Clouds: http://bit.ly/1M7w1jK Trees: http://bit.ly/1K4oy2R Rocks: http://bit.ly/1Nf2kfx
TEXTURE PAINTING DISCUSSIONS:
· Aaron Blaise Photoshop textures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5VHb4x-0Gs
· Modeling/texturing buildings:
http://www.creativebloq.com/how-make-low-poly-buildings-games-10123111
INSPIRATIONAL CONCEPT ARTISTS and OTHER SITES:
http://www.cgsociety.org/ http://www.gameartisans.org/dominancewar/index.htm
www.characterdesigns.com http://l2d.tumblr.com/archive
www.artbyfeng.com www.goodbrush.com
Character Design for Animation WEEK 1 TUMBLR BLOG
You are required to submit homework each week via your Tumblr blog, due each Monday 10pm. Posts must include: (1) text (your name and a description) AND (2) either images or video, depending on the assignment. Please save images as 72ppi JPEGs before uploading. You are encouraged to post drafts earlier, and often!
Please read the other blogs in your class each week, and offer constructive responses!
If you already have a Tumblr account from a previous class, please use it here, but don’t use your personal Tumblr account--you are creating a professional record of your work.
NEW TUMBLR ACCOUNT SETUP STEPS
(for more tips, see http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Tumblr):
1. CREATE A TUMBLR ACCOUNT AND A BLOG: Go to Tumblr.com and create a new account with your preferred personal email (not a school email, so you can keep using it after graduation). If you do not yet have a non-school email, sign up first with gmail.com.
2. SETTINGS: Confirm your account with the email they send you, then log into your new Tumblr account and make the following changes to your settings:
a. FOLLOW THE TEACHER AND CLASSMATES:
· On your main page, in the right-side menu, choose "Following."
· Follow the teacher blog “Darmatage.” Find the "Staff" listing and hit [Unfollow].
· Share your Tumblr handle with your classmates and follow each other.
b. REMOVE RANDOM POSTS (option may take time to be available on your account):
· Hit the "Settings" gear and in the left-side menu choose "Dashboard."
· Uncheck "Add Explore posts to my Dashboard ("You'll see posts from popular blogs that you don't follow.)". Hit [Save].
c. ALLOW RESPONSES:
· Hit the "Settings" gear and on the left-side menu choose the bottom blog option.
· At "Replies" check on both "Allow replies from people you follow." and "Allow replies from people following you for more than two weeks." Hit [Save].
d. SET NAME AND AVATAR:
· Create a square image of yourself, 256x256, 72ppi.
· Hit the "Settings" gear and on the left-side menu choose the bottom blog option.
· At the top, hit [Change Avatar] and choose your square image.
· To change your name from "Untitled", Click "Customize" in the theme section. Change the title in the Title field on the left.
e. CHOOSE A THEME WITH DATES:
· Hit the "Settings" gear and on the left-side menu choose the bottom blog option.
· Click "Customize" in the theme section, and choose a simple theme that includes dates. I recommend "Clean Read by Sparo," "Inkhorn," "Vacant," etc.
f. CREATE A TEST POST:
· Back in the Dashboard, choose a text post (the most robust—you can still include images or video) and post your initial story ideas!
Character Design for Animation PHOTOSHOP KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Here is a good introduction to keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop.
NOTE: Hover over any button in Photoshop to see the keyboard shortcut.
Create a New file (will size to clipboard content): [ Ctrl ]+[ n ]
Open an existing file: [ Ctrl ]+[ o ]
Save a file as a .PSD: [ Ctrl ]+[ s ]
Save a file as another type : [ Ctrl ]+[ Shift ]+[ s ]
Select All: [ Ctrl ]+[ a ]
Copy: [ Ctrl ]+[ c ]